thorbad

One relocation later I notice that some some news have accumulated over time, which I completely missed to tell around here.
In fact, it's a lot of news, but I shall restrict myself on stuff related to Telaya & Dioman (the rest is not all-that-entertaining anyway).

1st of all, I changed publication strategy: "This Side of Darkness" is now published as a nice, printed hardcover book by www.epsilongrafix.de/ ... unfortunately in German only for now. I have also put the online version on hold at the moment, because I felt that the chapter-based publication I opted for in the beginning, did not work too well.

However, there is a digital English version of the book available, too, and even a particularly cool one: the "movie" version, widescreen format, with soundtrack from audiomachine.com: get it at sellfy.com/p/oK4y/

Also, if there's enough interest, I would think about self-publishing a first paperback edition (print files and ISBN are ready, I just can't afford to pre-finance the edition right into the blue). Pricing should be around US$10 + shipment (which amounts to another US$ 4-5, from Germany to the US, as an example).
Just drop me a note here at deviantart, or at telayaanddioman.net to help me get an estimation of whether there's enough interest or not.

Last, but not least: after my first attendance at the www.comic-salon.de/ in June on the artist's side of the table, I will also attend www.comicaction.de/php/index.p… as an exhibitor, and share a booth with gold-seven.deviantart.com/ (which probably will set me into a mere observer's role, watching Jenny and her Darkness Over Cannae crowd from the side. )

So much for now.

Going back to sorting plot threads for book 2.

Finally ... the webcomic launch is closing in rapidly:
at February 6th (in two days), at 0:00, the first chapter of 'Telaya & Dioman: This Side of Darkness' will go online, after a much longer-than-anticipated period of website setup, mental cleanup, sorting out of print issues and so on.

While the scope of the story will rapidly widen in the later installments, during this book's plot, the reader's view will stay very close to the protagonists and inside the small part of the world they see. It primarily tells a self-contained subplot dedicated to Cin'Thele's first experiences, the odyssey of a young Anukhai hunter named Ulog, his friends, and how these threads meet in the end.

As already mentioned in my last journal entry, it's in the same turn the fulfillment of a promise I gave once, to a four-legged friend ...

Be warned: I take my time for telling that story. If you think any story should reveal it's characters' backgrounds and attitudes within the first few pages/minutes, this is not your story.
If you think, that after at most 10 pages action is needed, it is not yours.
If you think, that everything has to be told by dialoge, this is not yours.
If you think, that each page should contain at least one joke, this is not yours.

If you, however, like to
  dive into fictional worlds
  explore their foreignness
  watch the slow evolution of large-scale events
  love, fear, feel with the characters
  be emotional
this might be a good read.


-------> www.telayaanddioman.net <---------


Now, I'll lean back and wait.
I'm really curious on whether my slow buildup and decompressed, image-centered narrative style will catch you or not.

It's time to honour the fact, that the world is moving on.

Some years have passed since the events I wrote about in my last journal entry.
I have not been as passive as my activity record at DA suggests. It's just ... not a good idea to talk about anything you do, while you're at it.

However, 2013, despite what the "13" is hinting, was a very good year for me so far: at last, I managed to finish the first volume of my epic fantasy novel "Telaya & Dioman".
It came like kind of a "Blitzkrieg" against myself, surprising me completely with it's sudden, unexpected success: after years and years of desparate path-seeking, tryout, learning, frustration, to finally get the artistic skills together (I'm not one of these naturals, who just grow up with god-like drawing skills) to create an (THE! ) epic comic novel, it somehow "clicked", and worked ... like a charm. 4 months of work, and a 124-page book was written & drawn, right from the beginning to the very end. And tell you what: I'm very satisfied with it. Particularly, concerning the plot I managed to evolve here (could not have done this a few years ago), but concerning the artwork as well ... which surprises me even more, because the main trick has been: KISS (Keep It Simple ... you know the rest), don't focus on drawing & artwork, BUT on the STORY! Forgetting about drawing seemed to have solved the whole damn thing ... 

It took me another 1-2 months to smooth it out, do the final lettering, finish pre-print work ... but this is all done now, and the first printed books are here.

Originally, I always planned to find me a publisher, and aimed for print-only.

However, the "new" possibilities of web-based publishing thrilled me.
Moreover, I got fond of "open" concepts in the mean time (hereby doing a 180°-change away of my original philosophy of "absolute control over my own ideas and creations"), so the consequence came smoothly:

The first instalment of "Telaya & Dioman" titles "Diesseits der Nacht" in German (English title to be figured out yet), and will be launched as a Web comic early in 2014, at www.telayaundiomancomic.de (which, at the moment, is in a provisory state still). Prints will be available for sale at the website. An English translation will be done in January by my good friend Jenny Dolfen (yes, the famous one, here at DA - gold-seven.deviantart.com - thx a lot, Jenny, not only for the translation, but for everything else, too ), and also be available in a printed version for international shipment a bit later, so you need not fear to have to read the same level of pidgin English as in my postings and journals here.

As a little appetizer (written by ME! Noone else to blame ):

"When Cin'Thele opens her eyes, she finds herself lying at the shores of a small lake she's never seen before, amidst the ferns and mosses of a forest she doesn't know , in a world obeying different rules.

Bringing nothing with her into this world except a dim memory of a task she ought to fulfill, and some disquieting glimpses of a dark past, she has no other choice than to start and find out where she's been thrown into.

While seeking her steps into the foreign world, bit by bit, without knowing it, she stumbles right back into the fate she brought with her, deeper and deeper into the maelstrom of the War Of Mel, which has broken through the boundaries of the Ancient World, and is about to decide the fate of the young Universe ... a Universe where Salharin still wander among the stars, and where the the Givers dwell, worshipped by old and new people alike."

A last little remark, connecting this posting to my last one: after the death of Cloudy, I made a vow to honour her by a painting. However, I never did this.
Her alter ego now has her place in "Diesseits der Nacht", which is *much much* better.
I feel I've fulfilled that vow now, even if not literally ..


Hope you'll come for a visit soon, and enjoy the comic.

Today was a beautiful day - maybe the most shining day of the year, not a single cloud on the sky.
And you chose this day to leave.

You crossed the Rainbow Bridge, and left us back here, in cruel silence.

I did not know that a relationship like this was possible between individuals of different species, until we met you. Since then I know what true love is: give all your heart, and expect nothing in return.

You were a stout, solitary soul in the body of a little wolf, you survived things I don't want to imagine, and you now fought the inevitable until the very last moment. I did not only love you, but I also have more respect for your strength, than I have for most but not all human beings I came to know so far.

Until my last day, I will probably be in doubt whether we were right to help you let go today.
I made a vow to you, to never harm you - I pray desparately that you understand we just did not want you to die slowly, of suffocation. I pray, that your last glance meant the same love we had for you, and not fear and horror.

We pray that you will forgive us for what we believed we had to do.
And we thank you forever we had the opportunity to know your soul.

Seeya on the other side, little Wolf!

thorbad.deviantart.com/art/Far…

... and I hate it.
It's frackin' cold again, and weather forecast broadcasts threats of snow at the weekend.
Thank you.

If we had to start that pollute-the-athmosphere thing at all, why couldn't we have *really* finished the job, and make air stinky-cosy-warm enough to get at least *one* advantage out of it: say goodbye to frackin' father frost?!?
But no, we had to go just half the way, getting enough dirt above & around us to heat up the poles, where they really don't want it warm, and cool down the inbetween. Heck, *great*. What a good work - so at least we all are sitting in the same, crappy boat.
At least we made the air stink. That's something, isn't it?

Hey, idea: couldn't we just nuke the poles? This should make northern winds a different experience here in Central Europe ... and hey again, don't care about radiation, we've survived Tschernobyl!

But wait ... there's that nuclear-winter-thing again.
So the cold seems to be inevitable in the end.

Maybe we should just nuke the inbetween as well, then.




...





(don't take me serious - guess I've watched too much "Battlestar Galactica", to have such Cylon-inspired ideas. )